Hollywood is dead. I’ve been waiting a long time to say it now. I’ve officiallylost hope in the future of popular cinema after laying my eyes upon the “coming soon” lists of websites and theaters. A slew of comic book movies with rehashed storylines (Green Lantern is basically Iron Man with a ring and tights.) Ridiculously stupid animated films, (mostly from Dreamworks. Pixar is where the gold is, even though Parent company Disney sucks.) And reboots and remakes f already great films and film series(Does the world really need a remake of Conan the Barbarian? The Great Gatsby?) Another thing that caught my eye was that WB is making a live-action adaptation of “Akira,” the classic manga and animated film written and directed by Katsuhiro Otomo. But wait! They’re changing the character’s names from “Tetsuo” and “Kaneda” to more American sounding names like “Travis” and “Kevin!” And changing the setting from Japan to New York City! I would hardly even call it “Akira” anymore! This is the kind of crap Hollywood is coming up with? Originality seems to be lacking it seems. Hollywood is turning into the music industry. Corporate, senseless, pointless, pop trash being released by the masses with only very few artists actually having any quality. While fall, spring and winter were seasons reserved for the more introverted, intelligent films and moviegoers, the movies released these past seasons have made it feel like a blockbuster summer at the cinemas year round. Even the Oscars were terrible this year. Maybe it’s because smart movies don’t make money anymore. Inception almost never happened because studios didn’t believe it had moneymaking potential. The 90’s cult-classic “The Iron Giant” actually flopped. Hollywood has just turned into a greedy, corporate money-making machine. And that’s what it all comes down to now. Money, the supposed “root of all evil.” It’s turned it into an ugly atrocity with extremely few great qualities. Will future generations be able to view any of these films and call them a staple of our times? Part of this generation’s art & culture? All that I’m rooting for in this new generation of films is, as George Lucas would say it, “A New Hope.” Hopefully this greedy corporate machine will be taken down by a future rebel alliance